Japan Backpedals on Emissions Targets

By Noah Buhayar

Who said peer pressure doesn’t work? After getting slammed by the international community two weeks ago for setting what were perceived as unambitious emission reduction targets, Japan is backpedaling.

As the WSJ reported, the world’s second largest economy and fifth biggest greenhouse gas emitter originally offered up a 15 percent reduction in its emissions by 2020. There was a rub, though. The country wanted that reduction over 2005 levels, rather than 1990 levels, the baseline year used in the Kyoto Protocol. And since Japan’s emissions have been steadily climbing in recent years, that meant the reduction would have been only 2 percent more than the country committed to in Kyoto more than a decade ago.

Associated Press

Japan’s back door to cutting emissions: export efficiency

Yesterday, Tetsuo Saito, the country’s environment minister, announced that the country was reevaluating its goal. The initial target included only domestic measures, Mr. Saito told Reuters. The country now believes it can achieve greater reductions if its financial support and technology transfers to developing countries are used to offset Japan’s own emissions.

Helping countries like India and China develop clean energy and leapfrog the dirty development patterns of the West will no doubt be a part of the climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen. The European Commission is getting a jump on this kind of collaboration with Beijing by seeding 300-550 million euro carbon capture and sequestration project. Japan is also planning to underwrite other countries’ adoption of its clean technology—though the deals have been focused on Australia and the United States.

But don’t expect those measures to shore up rich countries’ image completely. As the world’s nations prepare for Copenhagen, there’s still lots of wrangling ahead.

Which country’s flag will get pinned to the wall of shame next? France nominated two nations yesterday: the United States and Canada.

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